Kaplan, Carla, ed. Zora Neale Hurston; a life in letters.Random House, Anchor. 880p. illus. index. c2002. 0-385-49036-4. $19.95. SA In her introduction to this valuable study, Carla Kaplan, a Hurston scholar, notes that Zora Neale Hurston Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American folklorist and author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance, best known for the 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. lived in an era when letter writing was the way to communicate with friends and associates. And communicate Hurston did, From 1917 to 1959, she wrote to her teachers, her benefactors, her editors, her colleagues and her friends. She left behind her a brilliant if not always self-revealing record of her ambitions, her triumphs, and her pain. Kaplan has arranged these letters by decade and she provides the reader with a carefully documented and clearly written account of Hurston's life during each decade as an introduction to each segment of letters. The reader who might not have read Hurston beyond a required reading of Their Eyes Were Watching God is supplied thereby with a framework that is a guide through the letters, a chronicle chronicle, official record of events, set down in order of occurrence, important to the people of a nation, state, or city. Almanacs, The Congressional Record in the United States, and the Annual Register in England are chronicles. that places Hurston's correspondence in perspective. Kaplan also provides the reader with a summary chronology chronology, n the arrangement of events in a time sequence, usually from the beginning to the end of an event. of Hurston's life and a detailed glossary A term used by Microsoft Word and adopted by other word processors for the list of shorthand, keyboard macros created by a particular user. See glossaries in this publication and The Computer Glossary. that carefully identifies every person mentioned in the letters. A bibliography bibliography. The listing of books is of ancient origin. Lists of clay tablets have been found at Nineveh and elsewhere; the library at Alexandria had subject lists of its books. of Hurston's own works as well as a selected bibliography for the study of Hurston is also included. Highly recommended for anyone seriously interested in Hurston. Patricia Moore, Brookline, MA |
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